


how to care for your devil summoner

by chidorinnn



Category: Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-01
Updated: 2017-03-01
Packaged: 2018-09-27 16:00:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10030646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chidorinnn/pseuds/chidorinnn
Summary: in which Raidou's fainting spells are a cause for great concern, and Narumi struggles to be an adult(King Abaddon)





	

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to be my Yuletide submission, but I HELLA goofed and forgot to upload it before a series of events which led to me not having access to this document for some weeks prior to and after the submission deadline. But also I DID finish it, so... *finger guns*

The Herald of Yatagarasu arrives early in the morning, before the sun rises. The relative darkness makes her look right at home, and her black clothes seem to blend into the sky. Normally, hers is a welcome presence, but only when Raidou is there — which he’s not, at the moment. And that’s precisely why Shouhei has called her here.

She comes into the office, as she always does when she visits. She sits at the sofa Raidou had just been napping on a short while ago. She refuses Shouhei’s usual offer for coffee, and he brews her tea instead as he always, always does. Everything is silent, because she has no business she needs to discuss, to Shouhei knowledge, and Raidou is in the Village of Tsukigata, so far removed from everything happening in the capital. 

(Tae doesn’t know yet. The phone call came to the office, and she’s supposed to stop by later, but Shouhei couldn’t bring himself to tell her that Raidou had collapsed _again,_ without them there to watch over him until he woke up.)

The Herald sips her tea with her smooth, unblemished fingers curled delicately around the handle. Shouhei’s own coffee sits untouched in a mug. For some reason, he can’t bring himself to take a single sip. “When will Raidou be joining us?” the Herald asks, perfectly calm and poised as always. There’s a hint of derision to her voice, as if she finds meeting him beneath her and not worth her time. 

Shouhei bristles, and he clenches his fists under the table. “He won’t,” he says stiffly, and tries to keep the irritation out of his voice.

“Oh,” the Herald says simply. “Was there something you needed, then?”

_Of course_ , he wants to say. _That’s why I called you here._ Instead, he pinches the bridge of his nose and takes a deep breath that doesn’t do nearly enough to calm him down. “Did you know,” he says slowly, “that Raidou’s been ill as of late?”

The Herald purses her lips together for a moment. “Ill?” she echoes.

“That’s how I see it, at any rate,” Shouhei says. “He’s collapsed more than once, and I’m sure they were all precluded by a horrible dizzy spell. Not that he’s ever complained about it, but—“

“I don’t see how this concerns me,” the Herald interjects. She sets down her teacup with perhaps a little more force than necessary, and pushes her chair back and smooths out her clothes.

“Of course it does,” Shouhei shoots back, with perhaps a little more force than necessary. If the Herald was thinking of standing up and leaving before, she makes no move to do so now. “You’re both part of the Kuzunoha clan, right? Then of course it concerns you.”

The Herald purses her lips together for a moment, and then her head dips into a nod. “Duly noted,” she says, perfectly calm and poised as ever, “though that does not answer the question of why you called me here to begin with.”

For a moment, Shouhei wants to tear his hair out, but he forces himself to take a deep breath to calm himself. Raidou wouldn’t get agitated over something like this; he’d keep his composure just as well as the Herald. _Aren’t you supposed to be the adult?_ Shouhei mentally chides himself, and shakes his head. “That’s exactly why I called you,” he says, mentally patting himself on the back when his voice doesn’t even shake. 

(He thinks back, briefly, to the first time it happened — a sudden commotion outside that piqued Shouhei’s detective’s intuition. There had been so many people huddled in front of his office, none of them actual customers — no, that wasn’t entirely accurate, and maybe he’s conjuring more people than there actually were to give the incident more weight in hindsight. Raidou had been crumpled on the ground, not moving, barely even breathing, and it was all Shouhei could do to yell at the people watching to _stop swarming_ while he took his ward inside. Raidou woke up moments later, and had been perfectly fine. They never spoke of the incident afterwards, not even when it happened again, and again.)

“I beg your pardon?” the Herald says.

Shouhei sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. “He’ll just… collapse, completely randomly,” he chokes out. “He’ll never complain if he’s _really_ feeling bad, so I have no idea if this is something that happens without much prior warning, or if…” _… or if he really is that ill_ , he wants to say, but can’t bring himself to say a single word more. “If you know of a demon who’s capable of doing this to him — or if you know about a demon that can help him get better—“

“I know of no such demon,” the Herald says sharply. “As for potential remedies, I would suggest standard healing spells. Perhaps Patra or Posumudi if Dia doesn’t seem to do the trick.”

Shouhei nods. “All right. I’ll tell him that.”

The Herald sets her teacup down on the table and stands. She doesn’t speak again until her hand is on the doorknob. “Narumi… I trust that you’ll take care of him.”

Shouhei snorts. “Is that even a question?” _I always have._

The Herald nods once to him before opening the door and shutting it quickly behind her as she slips outside.

* * *

 

The black ball that looms ominously over the rest of Tsukigata Village makes Shouhei’s stomach twist into knots — not with worry, and he’ll deny it to the ends of the earth if you were to insinuate it. _Raidou, what did you do…?_

But then, at the bus stop, it isn’t Akijiro that comes to greet them as promised, but Raidou. The boy looks no worse for wear — aside from looking a tad bit paler than usual, only noticeable because Shouhei is looking for it, there’s no evidence that he’d been unconscious for the past few days. He doesn’t even stumble — no dizzy spells — and Gotou remains perfectly calm as he sits perched on his shoulder.

_You’re taking time off once this case is over_ , Shouhei wants to say — and he will later, though he knows that Raidou will protest.

And then, something flickers through the boy’s placid expression, crinkling his eyes ever so slightly and tugging the corners of his lips down. He doesn’t need to say anything for Shouhei to know that a lot has happened in his absence. 

Shouhei pats him on the shoulder and offers him a smile — it’s the most he’s ever been able to give him. “Don’t worry,” he says. “This case is almost over.”


End file.
